SELECTED PROJECTS

Build things that leave the world a little more useful.

I'm Mark Shaw, a Calgary, Alberta web developer and software engineer with PEI roots. Client launches sit beside public-interest, preservation, open-source, and contributed work. Together they show how I turn real operational needs into useful software and keep responsibility for what happens after launch.

Choose a project to support ↗ Browse public GitHub →

LIVE DIGITAL-PRESERVATION PROJECT · MILLSBERRY REBORN

Millsberry Reborn

Recovering and documenting a discontinued virtual world so its pages, games, artwork, and technical history do not disappear with obsolete servers and the end of browser Flash.

Live replay

Recovered Millsberry world map · preserved from the original virtual world

Why preserve it

Millsberry was part of the childhood internet for many players, but the original service shut down and much of its content became inaccessible. Digital preservation requires more than collecting files: routes, dependencies, browser behavior, and missing server responses must be understood well enough to make the archive useful again.

Who it helps

Former players revisiting a shared piece of internet history, game-preservation researchers, Flash archivists, web historians, and contributors trying to identify or recover missing material.

Recovered and working

Indexes 2,187 exact routes, 1,484 assets, and 1,670 recovered page files
Serves archived HTML, SWF, image, CSS, JavaScript, XML, PDF, and Unity assets
Rewrites historical URLs and Flash parameters for the local replay environment
Provides persistent accounts, inventory, shops, Millsbucks, banking, buddies, and shortcuts
Includes reconstructed maps for City, Downtown, Lakeview, Golden Valley, and Metro Park
Publishes a searchable gallery containing 669 recovered SWF teaser images

What support moves forward

Recovering missing game binaries, item artwork, navigation assets, and dependencies
Reconstructing score submission, avatar, home, messaging, and event endpoints
Testing recovered games against modern Ruffle releases
Documenting provenance so official files and generated fallbacks stay distinguishable
Hosting the public replay and large preservation archive
Building better tools for contributors to identify high-value recovery gaps

LIVE PUBLIC-SERVICE PLATFORM

Skills Robotics Scoreboard

Competition software that lets students focus on building robots while judges and organizers get one reliable source of truth.

Live

The problem

Robotics competitions are operationally dense. Schedules change, judges need fast access, scores must remain auditable, and spectators expect clear live results. Spreadsheets and disconnected tools create delays exactly when the room is busiest.

Who it helps

Students, teachers, volunteer judges, event organizers, and families following the competition.

What the platform does

Builds round-robin schedules and competition timelines
Gives judges focused scoring access without full administration
Publishes live matches, rankings, results, and brackets
Preserves scoring history and manual corrections for accountability
Supports event displays readable across a competition room
Exports schedules, standings, score sheets, and event data

Volunteer development priorities

Testing against more competition formats and scoring rubrics
Improved offline and unreliable-network behavior
Better setup documentation for volunteer-run events
Hosting and live-event reliability work

ORIGINAL OPEN-SOURCE UTILITY · MIT

JumpBox

A deliberately small PowerShell tool for people who connect to the same servers often and are tired of remembering every hostname, account, and command.

Open source

The problem

Repeated server access becomes a pile of copied commands, shell history searches, and credential mistakes. Heavy infrastructure dashboards are excessive when the real need is “show me my servers and connect correctly.”

Who it helps

Developers, homelab operators, small hosting teams, and anyone administering several SSH accounts from Windows.

Working features

Discovers server and account definitions from environment files
Presents a fast numbered terminal menu
Uses built-in OpenSSH or PuTTY when available
Keeps real configuration and passwords out of the repository
Fails with specific setup guidance instead of cryptic shell errors
Ships with example configuration and an MIT license

What support moves forward

Connection profiles and favourite targets
Safer key-selection and jump-host workflows
Cross-platform PowerShell testing
Short setup guides for first-time SSH users

IN DEVELOPMENT · COMMUNITY PLATFORM

Road Rally

A place for automotive communities to discover safe events, share worthwhile routes, organize groups, and meet around the part of car culture that is actually social.

Building

The problem

Local car communities are scattered across social feeds, private chats, and expired event posts. Useful route knowledge disappears, newcomers struggle to find legitimate groups, and organizers repeatedly rebuild the same information.

Who it helps

Local clubs, event organizers, scenic-drive groups, track-day communities, newcomers, and people looking for responsible ways to enjoy their vehicles with others.

Already built

Member profiles, garages, and vehicle details
Public events with attendance and organizer workflows
Mapped routes, waypoints, descriptions, and difficulty
Public and approval-based community groups
Messaging, activity feeds, points, and achievements
React frontend with a TypeScript API and PostgreSQL data model

What support moves forward

Public beta hosting and moderation tools
Route safety notes and seasonal closure information
Organizer verification and clearer event trust signals
Mobile usability and real-community testing in Alberta

IN DEVELOPMENT · LEARNING THROUGH PLAY

Anime.js Puzzle Lab

A browser puzzle game where animation is not decoration: movement, timing, and visual feedback are how the player experiments and learns.

Prototype

The idea

Technical learning tools often explain first and engage second. This project reverses that order: give the player something intriguing to manipulate, let them form a theory, then help them understand why it worked.

Who it helps

Young developers, visual learners, teachers looking for interactive examples, and curious people who learn better by trying than by reading another tutorial.

Foundation in place

Multi-level challenge and progression structure
Server-verified answers rather than cosmetic completion
Tiered hints for players who get stuck
Session-based progress and seeded starter levels
Automated checks for level configuration and solution logic
Anime.js motion with PHP, MySQL, HTMX, and AJAX

What support moves forward

A polished first public chapter
Accessibility and reduced-motion alternatives
More puzzle types and clearer learning outcomes
Playtesting with people new to web development

CLIENT WEBSITE · CALGARY

The Wandering Picnic

A booking-ready website that turns a fully packed Calgary picnic experience into a clear offer customers can understand, plan, and request online.

Live client

The business goal

Make an unfamiliar service immediately understandable: choose a picnic package, select a date and Calgary pickup or outing details, then send a complete booking request without a long back-and-forth.

Who it helps

Calgary couples, families, friends, and celebration planners looking for a ready-to-go outdoor experience with local food, drinks, games, a blanket, and practical essentials already packed.

What I built

Responsive multi-page website shaped around packages and booking
Booking flow for package, date, guests, occasion, location, and dietary needs
Server-handled booking and contact requests with email delivery
Package, location, FAQ, gallery, story, and local-artisan content
Local SEO, canonical metadata, social previews, and structured data
Sitemap, robots, and AI-crawler guidance for better discovery

Delivered for launch

A focused web presence and inquiry workflow for a local experience business, ready for customers to explore packages and request their preferred picnic online.

CONTRIBUTED WORK · UPSTREAM BY PABLO DE LUCCA

Pixel Agents / Codex adaptation

An adaptation of Pixel Agents that explores how local Codex sessions can become visible, understandable, and easier to supervise without sending private work to a remote service.

Contribution

My role

Pixel Agents is an open-source project created by Pablo De Lucca. My work is a local Codex-focused adaptation: preserving upstream attribution while adding provider abstractions, Codex session observation, hooks, and a standalone viewer for my workflow.

Why it matters

AI coding agents are useful but opaque. A visual activity layer can show which agent is reading, writing, waiting, or asking for attention without requiring someone to parse several terminals continuously.

Adaptation work

Codex and Claude provider selection behind shared interfaces
Local session and hook observation for near-live activity
Standalone browser viewer outside the VS Code panel
Defensive parsing for evolving local Codex session formats
External asset-directory support and modular office assets
Preserved upstream licensing, attribution, and compatibility

What support moves forward

More reliable Codex state detection
Clearer waiting, approval, and error states
Agent-to-project assignment and activity history
Upstream-friendly patches where the changes generalize

WHY DO THIS?

The internet should contain more things made to help, teach, connect, and delight.

Client work pays the bills. Public and contributed work is where I can take a useful problem seriously before it has a business model, or help another developer push a good idea further. Choose a project when you contribute and I’ll direct the support toward time on that work.

Choose what to support ↗